Name Chain

Name Chain, 2025
Fabric name labels, cotton thread

A stitched chain of name labels.
ELEANOR SHIPMAN ELEANOR SHIPMAN ELEANOR SHIPMAN
89 labels leftover from a pack of 100.

Bought by my mother to sew into school clothes: 90s bucket hats, white polo shirts, grey pleated skirts and bright yellow jumpers (dotted with black bugs all summer).
Careful stitching, a domestic chore. Keeping things safe and secure.

I never could throw them away. My own name, repeated, carefully bundled in packs of 10.
A name I rarely use these days.
Sleeping in a sewing box for 25 years.

Now attached together in an infinite loop.
Devoid of their function whilst becoming only that - a named thing.
A chain of names.